The design for the new Salvador Dali Museum which will be located on the waterfront in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida was revealed at a City Council meeting yesterday...
The design, by HOK's Tampa office, appears to be a minimal white box that is being attacked by a glass blob that is dubbed "The Enigma".
The preliminary design was approved by Council. Construction should begin this fall with the new museum opening in 2010.
See the story and renderings in the St. Petersburg Times.
17 Comments
Ummm. not sure how i feel about this?
i'm not a big fan of it... i think that it is a lost opportunity... but i knew that it was a lost opportunity when they hired HOK... i will say that it is much improved over the previous design that i saw over a year ago...
that design was a white box with a central atrium... over the central atrium was a big glass skylight shaped like a loaf of bread... and the entrance elevation had Dali's signature as a sign... and the dot of the i was a stainless steel tube that protruded out of the building about 25 feet and spilled water into a pool in the plaza...
i honestly thought the previous design was ridiculous enough to have promise...at least as i recall it. phil, do you have any pics handy (perhaps to make me eat my words)...
this iteration is just a disappointing example of what you get when you hire HOK for a project like this.
that's pretty insulting for a Dalí museum... any late Gehry would fit better for the Catalan genius than this sort of pseudo-corporate-box-meets-a-dull-blob
It's official:
Blob-o-tecture has jumped the shark. When the corporate initial firms start doing it, it's over Johnnie...
It is an improved design over the previous HOK, still lacking the Dali spirit, but interesting. Here the current modernist version in St. Pete and the previous HOK proposal:
http://www.pushpullbar.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=34835&stc=1&d=1193313679
The spanish version is more Dali:
http://www.pushpullbar.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=34830&stc=1&d=1193306223
The Catalan (not Spanish) 'version' is more Dalí because it was Dalí himself who helped with the design of the rehabilitation of an old castle (or mansion) to put his museum there... the interior is actually pretty beautiful, not only for the art but also for the architecture
^ I loved the interior atrium of the Figueras, Spain museum but the exterior was a little (hmmmm how do I say this), too much?
Surrealist? ;)
(Figueres, Catalonia, .. not Figueras, Spain, Spanish State=Catalonia+Spain+Basque Country+Galicia)
by the way, those are croissants glued to a red, egg-crowned tower and wall - makes sense for a surrealist home...
the crystal dome is quite beautiful at night also..
Please note that Catalonia, Basque Country, and Galicia are all autonomaus communities within Spain. While Catalans, Galegos, y Basquos have a strong (and admirable) self-identity, it's not improper to identify an area within those regions as part of the entirety of Spain.
n,
the Statute of Catalonia (the original one, not the one manipulated by the Spanish Constitutional Court), with the approval of 90% of the deputees in the Catalan Parliament (that is, approved by the citizens of Catalonia) and presented formally in September 2006, considers Catalonia it a nation within the Spanish State... if you think that our own opinion on what we are is less relevant than what you or the Spanish Constitution says you have a problem
there was that thing in that old 20ct century called 'fascism' remember? it was something like some (crazy/stupid) people imposing national identities on other people from other places.... -> n, don't tell us what the fuck we are, you're not allowed to do this unless you consider yourself a fascist or at least a plain ignorant on the history and present condition of Catalonia (including Dalí's museum in Figueres or a goddamn green marble wall inside Mies pavilion in BCN)
Wow, Medit, please calm down.
1) No, I'm not a fascist.
2) Yes, I do know quite a bit of Spanish, Catalan history having lived there, having many members of my current family live off the Costa Brava, and having much of my mother's ancestry of Catalan background.
3) I'm not telling you what you are. I'm stated where the museum is. If it's better for you, I'll write Figueres, Catalonia. It makes no difference to me. Please note that I never intended to belittle Catalonia but when speaking of a geographical location the majority of individuals will recognize Spain before Catalonia.
The Statute of Catalonia, while passed by the Catalan Parliament and Spanish Parliament, frames its identity in such a way that it declares itself a nation within the framework of a state. One also has to realize that the Spanish constitution is framed in a manner that all communties are legally able to identify themselves as a nation. Many of the autonomaus regions are already nations under the Spanish state: the Canary Islands, Valencia, Aragon, Galicia, etc.
yes, I know people in Alaska, Birmania, Cape Town or Melbourne will find Spain in a world map more easily than finding Catalonia... but that's not enough for me, (and for most catalans)... so I take any opportunity I have (even in Archinect) to put this very clearly: we are part of the Spanish State, that's right -though I'm one more Catalan independentist, like Gaudí, like Sert- but we are not Spaniards, those are our western neighbours, we are Catalans.. and buildings in Catalonia are Catalan buildings, whether built by Gaudí or by Jean Nouvel...
anyway, I've re-read my previous message and it's clearly excessive so I apologize... I was hearing the PP candidate this morning in the news radio and I got quite heated... damn right-wing Spaniards still live in a francoist, totalitarian cavern...
la-di-da...
back to the impossible HOK-Dalí relation...
what's a fascist?
it's a tough project...if the "enigma" carries enough experience, it might actually work...
imho, the minimal white box would've been better...let dali be dali...
i dunno. from what i remember about tampa/st pete, it's a pretty representative project (especially as glass diarrhea)
maybe hok should stick to stadia?
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